This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-387391, filed on Dec. 20, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf iron head protector for protecting a golf iron head, and more specifically, for protecting the face (the surface for hitting a ball) thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when a golf player plays holes, he or she carries a golf bag holding a set of golf clubs consisting of fourteen clubs on a cart. When moving around with the golf bag placed on the cart during a game (in this case, the golf bag is placed on the cart at a slant or horizontally in many cases), a number of club heads often come into contact with each other, thereby damaging their faces of the heads, which should be handled with care.
In such a case, the heads of golf clubs other than golf irons (e.g. woods) are protected to some extent by head covers (golf clubs other than golf irons are normally covered with head covers because they are equipped with head covers at the time of purchase in most cases, and because they are used less often during a game).
However, the heads of a set of nine or ten golf irons are not normally covered by head covers, and thus they often become seriously damaged upon contact with each other while being carried on the cart (it is normal for golf irons not to be protected by head covers because they are not equipped with head covers at the time of purchase in most cases, and because they are used many times during a game).
Conventionally, several devices for protecting the heads of the golf clubs in the golf bag from being damaged by contact with each other have been proposed. For example, the following proposals has been made.
(1) In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-337224, a golf bag including a cylinder for creating a cylindrical section in the golf bag, and partitions for dividing the space between the cylinder and the inner wall of the golf bag into several sections is proposed. However, according to that proposal, the shafts of the golf clubs are separated from each other by the cylinder and the partitions, but the heads of the golf clubs remain xe2x80x9cfree to move about and make contact with each otherxe2x80x9d above the partitions. Therefore, when they are being carried on the cart (the golf clubs are placed on the cart at a slant or horizontally in many cases while being carried on the cart), the heads of the respective golf clubs come into contact with each other, and hence become damaged by each other. As a consequence, the proposal in that publication cannot prevent the heads of the golf clubs from coming into contact with each other at all though it can prevent the shafts of the golf clubs from coming into contact with each other.
(2) In Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 5-173, a golf bag including a bundle of a total of fourteen pipes for inserting the shafts of the golf clubs is proposed. However, according to the proposal in that publication, although the respective club shafts are separated from each other, the heads of the clubs remain free to move about and make contact with each other above the pipes. Therefore, when they are being carried in the golf bag placed on the cart (the golf clubs are placed on the cart at a slant or horizontally in many cases while being carried on the cart), the heads of the respective golf clubs come into contact, and hence become damaged by each other. As a consequence, the proposal in that publication cannot prevent the heads of the golf clubs from coming into contact with each other at all although it can prevent the shafts of the golf clubs from coming into contact with each other.
(3) Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-128423 proposes a golf bag including five small club mouths provided at the upper opening of the golf bag for inserting the shafts of the respective golf irons, U-shaped head shields provided above the respective club mouths for placing the head of the respective golf irons therein, a club mouth for inserting a shaft of a putter, and a large-sized central mouth for inserting a plurality of shafts of the other clubs, wherein the xe2x80x9cfive U-shaped head shieldsxe2x80x9d that correspond to the lengths of the respective golf irons are formed continuously from the xe2x80x9cfive club mouthsxe2x80x9d so that the five golf irons may be disposed from the longest one in sequence.
However, in the proposal in that publication, although the U-shaped head shields are provided above the club mouths for inserting the respective golf iron shafts, the heads of the respective golf irons remain free to swing and move about in the respective U-shaped head shields. Furthermore, since each U-shaped head shield is opened (has an opening) upward, when the golf bag is carried while being placed at a slant or horizontally in the cart, the heads of the respective golf irons are often displaced upward from the U-shaped head shields due to vibrations of the cart, which may cause the heads of the respective golf irons to become free to move about and make contact with each other above the respective U-shaped head shields.
Therefore, with the proposal in that publication, when the golf bag is carried while being placed at a slant or horizontally on the cart, the heads of the respective golf irons move upward from the U-shaped head shields and are consequently brought into contact with each other, thereby becoming damaged. Therefore, the proposal in that publication cannot prevent the faces of the golf iron heads from being brought into contact with each other and hence becoming damaged when the golf bag is carried while placed at a slant or horizontally on the cart.
In addition, the proposal in that publication only forms a plurality of club mouths as described above at the upper opening of the golf bag, while the lower portions of the shafts of the golf clubs (the portions located downward of the club mouths of the golf bag) remain free to move about and contact with each other. Therefore, according to the proposal in that publication, when carrying the golf bag on the cart (especially when the golf bag is placed at a slant or horizontally on the cart), there is a possibility that the lower portions of the shafts of the golf clubs may ride on top of one another or come into contact with each other, resulting in the shafts becoming bent.
Furthermore, in the proposal in that publication providing the mouths and the U-shaped head shields, when pulling out the club from the bag, the shaft or the grip of the each club may disadvantageously catch on the peripheral wall (partition wall) of the club mouth, and thus the golf clubs including the golf irons cannot be taken out from the club mouths easily.
In addition, according to the proposal in that publication, the five U-shaped head shields that match the lengths of the respective golf irons are formed continuously from the five club mouths so that the five golf irons may be disposed from the longest one in sequence (See claim 1 and reference numeral 8 in FIG. 1 in the publication). However, according to the proposal in that publication, since only five U-shaped head shields are disposed continuously so as to match the lengths of the respective clubs as described above, it is extremely difficult for the user to easily recognize a whole set of nine or ten golf irons in order of length at a glance and to know whether or not all of them are present, or which one of the iron clubs out of the whole set is absent.
(4) In Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No. 58-80273, a club case including a storage pipe through which the shaft of a single golf club can be inserted, and a U-shaped head storage for supporting the head thereof are proposed. However, in the proposal in that publication, the club case is formed of a storage pipe for storing a single club, and a plurality of club cases are stored in the golf bag separately from each other. Therefore, when the user tries to take out a desired club from the plurality of clubs stored in the golf bag, the user has to remove the club in a state in which each golf club catches on the storage pipe from the storage pipe. In other words, in order to take out and use a golf club from the golf bag, after having taken out both the desired club and the storage pipe together, the user then has to pull out the club from the storage pipe, which is quite troublesome for the user.
According to the U-shaped head storage in that publication, there is a problem in that it cannot accommodate all types of golf iron heads, which differ in loft angle, in lie angle, or in structure of rear surface. In order to make the U-shaped head storage accommodate all the types of golf iron heads, which differ in loft angle, in lie angle, or in structure of rear surface, the angle and size of the recess of the U-shaped head storage in which the head is clamped have to be increased. However, if doing so, the angle or the size of the U-shaped recess becomes too large (increased too much), and thus it cannot clamp the head adequately, and thus the head moves freely in the U-shaped recess.
(5) In Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Registration Application Publication No.5-33751, a band-shaped head cover is proposed, said cover including continuously formed bags in which the respective golf club heads are stored. However, since the proposal in that publication is to store the heads of a plurality of golf clubs in this continuously formed bags altogether, it is not practical for using during a game because it is troublesome to take out the required club and store the used club before and after each shot, respectively, if all the heads of the plurality of clubs are stored altogether. Therefore, the idea proposed in that publication cannot be used for the purpose of preventing the faces of the golf iron heads from becoming damaged by being brought into contact with each other when the golf bag is carried on the cart during a game at all.
In view of such problems in the related art, the objects of the present invention are to provide a golf iron head protector that (a) reliably prevents the shafts of the golf irons from being brought into contact with each other, resulting the shafts becoming bent, and the faces of the golf iron heads from being bought into contact with each other and hence being damaged when the golf bag is carried on a cart at a slant or horizontally during a game, (b) adequately supports all the types of the golf iron heads, which differ in loft angle, lie angle, or structure of rear surface, (c) enables the user to take out the desired golf iron easily from the golf bag during a game, and (d) enables the user to easily recognize whether or not all the nine or ten golf irons are present, and if not, which golf irons are missing at a glance.
In order to achieve the objects described above, the golf iron head protector of the invention includes a tubular member of cylindrical or polygonal shape to be inserted into a golf bag, nine or ten pipes for holding (containing) shafts of nine or ten golf irons respectively which is fixed to the outer surface of the tubular member so that the axes of the pipes are oriented in parallel with the axis of the tubular member, disposed at predetermined intervals and in an approximately ring-shape in plan view, and disposed in contact with the inner wall surface of the golf bag or in the vicinity of the inner wall surface thereof, and nine or ten band shaped head supports for supporting the nine or ten golf iron heads respectively so as to prevent the heads from being brought into contact with each other by clamping the golf iron heads to (on) the outer surface of the tubular member which are disposed on portions of the outer surface of the tubular member located obliquely above the nine or ten pipes.
Preferably, in the golf iron head protector of the invention, the head support is composed of elastic belt for pressing the golf iron head against the outer surface of the tubular member, one end of said head support is fixed to a portion of the tubular member located in the vicinity of the upper end of the pipe, and the other end of said head support is fixed to a portion of the tubular member located away from said one end by a predetermined distance and upward or obliquely upward from said one end.
Preferably, in the golf iron head protector of the invention, the head support includes a first belt having a fixed end fixed to a portion of the tubular member located in the vicinity of the upper end of the pipe and a free end being movable against the tubular member, a second belt having a fixed end fixed to a portion of the tubular member located away from the upper end of the pipe by a predetermined distance and upward or obliquely above the fixed end of the first belt and a free end being movable against the tubular member, and an engaging portion (a connecting section) for engaging the free ends of the first and the second belts.
Preferably, the engaging portion includes a first Velcro fastening provided on the free end of the first belt and a second Velcro fastening provided on the free end of the second belt and being capable of engaging the first Velcro fastening.
Preferably, in the golf iron head protector of the invention, the tubular member includes a partitioning member therein for holding the shafts and grips of the five or four golf clubs out of irons to be inserted therein separately from each other.
Preferably, in the iron golf club head protector of the invention, the nine or ten pipes are fixed to the outer surface of the tubular member so that the heights of the upper ends of the respective pipes each of which has different length from each other are decreasing from the longest pipe to the shorter pipes in sequence. In this case, the lower ends of the pipes are preferably disposed and fixed at the substantially same level. In this case, the upper end of the tubular member is inclined to the axial direction of the tubular member such that the upper end of the tubular member is corresponding to the heights of the upper ends of the pipes that varies according to the lengths of the pipes.
Preferably, in the golf iron head protector of the invention, a portion of the tubular member that the golf iron head comes into contact with or faces toward is covered with soft cloth such as felt.